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UK: Blair gives religious employers the right to sack gay workers

Source:

The Independent on Sunday

Tony Blair was accused of caving in to evangelical Christians last night after it emerged that new government legislation will allow faith schools, churches, hospices and other religious employers to sack lesbian and gay staff.

Equal
rights campaigners were furious when they discovered that regulations intended
to combat discrimination in the workplace contain wide-ranging exemptions for
any employer "with an ethos based on religion or belief". The Lesbian and Gay
Christian Movement said that the move would institutionalise homophobia in a way
that "makes Section 28 look like a tea party". Others claimed that the
exemptions exposed the "dangerous" influence church groups have over the Prime
Minister. The 2003 Employment Equality Regulations were originally drafted by
ministers with the aim of achieving a historic breakthrough in combating
harassment and bias in the workplace on grounds of sexuality or
religion.